Newbie

[Fanous1120]

Have you done any commercial appraisals?
If you have did you like it?

No I haven’t, only a few residential jobs.

 

[Michigan CG]

do you think going for the residential is easier? .....................also you being a CG appraiser, how much of your work is commercial and how much is residential? ............I am guessing people go for CG appraiser because the commercial work is more profitable?...

Yes, for the most part residential is easier. I am about 10% farm/30% commercial/60% residential so far this year. Yes, commercial is more profitable.

 

[ucbruin]

No I haven’t, only a few residential jobs.

Do you really want to be a CG rather than a CR?

 

[ramrcdk]

Please DO research ...here (AF). AppraisalBlog, there are several, even FB.
Several juicy Threads regarding Clients-AMCs, Improving the Profession (not really an improvement), Clients Bad Hardly Ever Good.
Hybrid 1004P type Forms & product testing by Fannie Mae ...& FEE for these type products. Do you want to be your own Boss?
FDIC & Gov' doing away with appraisals, Waivers, Threshold >$400k proposed...
LOTS of interesting Summer Reading
Posters here with years of experience in saying ...how many of the current % won't make it out alive.
More than a Nail Biter...It's some Valium-eating stuff !!!
Please do lots & lots & then some more research "where" you will be appraising. Do AMCs (AMC takeover?) do most of the ordering for yours-to-be
potential clients, will you have enough varying type of clients: like estate, attorney, voluntary buy programs...etc. etc. etc.?
What I am referring to is: do not depend on mortgage lending. Think about ALL sides of appraising...then be focused on just how long you can work for pennies.

INSTEAD
WHY don't you start a very savvy Company that professionally measures properties & even does "observations" as well!
Have LASER will travel, that with Apex or similar & your OFF ! No license, no CE, can do Part-Time until you need to hire someone to help you.
Real Estate Auctioneer, 10% ain't bad ! And you get to meet "all of the ones with cash in hand" funding !
Matter-fact, being an Auctioneer, you will be in more demand ...in bad times.

NO years & years of NO pay with promise of ...what?? "Hind Site" is closest to being Mr. Right.
I started in my mid-20's & it's been a great ride!! Starting out now, nope!
That's my 2 pennies, anyway.

All the BEST to you & your family & your future!

 

[Financially Feasible]

"Easier", to me, is something which really shouldn't enter into the conversation. Would you prefer to do residential or commercial? If "more profitable" is a concern, for me, I would say commercial (which is why I'm doing that now after starting out in the residential appraisal space). Also, as a CG, you can also do residential properties (subject to competency) if you'd like... but if you're a licensed/certified residential appraiser, you can't appraise commercial properties (said differently, it doesn't go both ways).

You can work under an individual (sole proprietor), you can work for a corporation (large or small)... there are no restrictions for that. In fact, you can have as many supervisors as you want. There is lots of flexibility there.

My take on this is that you're trying to do an early/mid-career change of path. That is probably the most difficult time to make that transition. If you were fresh out of college, sure, jump right in with both feet. If you're sitting on a pension after 30 years with a firm and you want to re-start as an appraiser, great. With anything else in between, and with any level of family (i.e. kids) in tow, unless you have a spouse who can support the family for the time that it would take you to get up and running (i.e. profitable)... then the transition is darn near impossible (although not totally impossible... it has been done before).

You're doing the right thing - keep asking questions. That's what we're here for.

 

[Jim Onderisin]

What does it tell you when the proposal you face is three months full time work in return for "close to nothing"? What it tells me is there is either so much cheap labor supply or no one values the work enough to pay for it. Lenders are the mainstay of appraisal demand. They've been trying to eliminate appraisers from the lending process for decades and it seems though they are finally succeeding. If you are responsible for a family, keep in mind that pursuing appraising will long, hard road, not only for you, but for them.

 

[CANative]

New Jersey Appraisal

: Certified General
Experience: 3,000 hours of acceptable appraisal experience in no less than 18 months. A minimum of 1,500 hours of the required experience must be in non-residential appraisal work. College Education: Must have a Bachelor's degree or higher.

You don't have to have 3,000 hours of commercial experience. You have to have 3000 hours with 1,500 being non-residential.

So your pathway might look like doing residential for a year or so and then working with a commercial appraiser or firm to get that extra 1,500 of non-residential.

 

[Deleted member 152047]

Many have mentioned the difficulties with the profession and becoming a CG. The other side of what you intend to do is that you have to find a mentor. No mentor worth their salt is going to hire an inexperienced part time trainee. Full time trainees cost mentors tens of thousands of dollars a year to train. The mentor's cost is offset by the revenue generated by the trainee for the duration of their training and hopefully well into their tenure as CG's.

The flipside of that is that the large companies will take on trainees at reasonable salaries and/or splits that will allow a motivated trainee to make a decent living while training (this would likely be between $35-60k). If you are currently earning wages significantly higher than this range, stay where you are, it takes at least 4-5 years before you can sniff six figures (unless you are willing to work 60+ hours every week).

 

[Gobears81]

I am guessing people go for CG appraiser because the commercial work is more profitable?

I remember a stay-at-home mom came into my office unannounced and she wanted to talk about becoming a trainee and doing commercial appraising part time. I tried asking her what appeals to her about doing commercial work more and she couldn't give a good answer. Obviously, someone advised her to go for her CG based on commercial being more profitable, as you say. Needless to say, she's not working with me and I haven't heard about her from anyone else since.

Not that you should only listen to your heart and not your head, but if you go into commercial, it is because you feel your skills are well suited for it and you have an interest for some of the aspects that aren't as commonly displayed on the residential side. Commercial work can be mentally draining, but I fell into doing almost exclusively commercial because I had more to offer on that side. If it were the other way around, I'd be focusing more on residential at this point, regardless of profitability. I point that out not only as an interview pointer when you are discussing with a prospective mentor, but also for your own direction as I didn't really see it mentioned on why going for a CG or commercial would be preferable, other than maybe the quote above.

 

[Digger88]

I am guessing people go for CG appraiser because the commercial work is more profitable?...